Mass Effect 0: The Vigilante Redux
by The Illusive Mann
Summary: Thrown into the world of Mass Effect, I have to help a character that I created become the vigilante of the citadel and do what he has wanted to do, get revenge! WARNING!*This is a Self-Insert with, blood, profanity, crude humor, sexual content, and in some cases breaking the fourth wall! Viewer discretion is advised!*
1. Enter the Stranger

**I just wanted to let people know that this is a remake of my first fic, which is sloppy because I haven't done anything with it in forever, and this is definitely going to be more awesome than the last because it will be skipping my OCs past and moving on to a different role that he plays. Also this is my first self-insert so much criticism will be appreciated.**

**Enjoy. :-)**

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_"Life is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you're gonna get."_

_- Forrest Gump_

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Life is a very interesting thing. Many think that their path is illuminated, and it's all going to be sunshine and lollipops the whole way through, but it's not. I haven't had the hardest time finding out what I want to do when I got older because it was given to me, a lot of things were. I always wondered how that happened, and why I deserved this, of course I was a spoiled little brat back then that didn't really know any better. Now i've changed, now I know that there is an illumination to our paths, we just can't see it sometimes.

I started playing Mass Effect three years ago , a game that brought me into a futuristic landscape with aliens and the like. There were conversations to be had, places to explore, a rouge spectre to kill...

It was all fun and games until one day when I decided to pick up the controller again and start playing. It was the Citadel DLC that I had recently downloaded and wanted to play for while hearing it's release. It was fun, I just wish that there could have ben more to the ending of the game, or better yet change the ending so that my character could stay with the love that he or she chose instead of heartbreak hill.

Outside there was a thuderstorm approaching, and I didn't seem to care. I had surge protectors for all of my electronics, so what should I worry about? Well let me tell you, it wasn't the storm that I shoud have worried about, it was probably the shady figure that had somehow gotten through the locked door to my dorm room. Usually I would know that somebody other than me was in the room because i'm the paranoid type of person to check my back, even when its parked on a wall.

The figure somehow melded with the shadow and warped his way around to my console until he had attached himself to it. He slid a hand into the disk drive and started messing around with the internal circuitry, until he found something that he wanted. Without warning my xbox cut off and my controller short circuited. I tossed the spent technology to the ground and stared blankly at the smoking piece of technology.

"Great.." I said while rubbing the back of my head, "I spent twenty dollars just to have my Xbox explode."

Somehow the tv turned off in the mess too, and I prayed that it wasn't the same case. Grabbing the tv remote I turned on the tv to see if it was still alive, and waited a few seconds to see if the indicator light would come on. After five seconds the tv came on, but something was amiss. The screen was all blue, like a computer when something is wrong with it, except my tv isn't a computer and the screen isn't supposed to do his. I threw the remote down and walked over to see what the problem was and turned the tv around and saw that the power cable had been snipped. Heat was still coming from the tv like it usually does when it is on, but I didn't understand how it could still work. I turned the tv back to face me and saw somebody on the screen. It waved at me and I backed away.

"Hello there.." said the man from the tv, "nice weather we're having."

I didn't really understand what was happening and tried to say something, but all that I could get out was, "Uhhhhh, hello.."

The figure in the tv moved closer to the screen and knocked on it, "Hello? Did I come here to pick up a zombie?"

I just shook my head in response and the man grinned, "Good, then come over here and take my hand."

Something in my mind was telling me not to trust this man, I mean who was he? This stranger that could somehow talk to me through the television wanted me to go with him? How could I do that? Would I fit through the screen(because i'm big boned)? I didn't know for sure, but the door out was starting to look like a good idea. Without a second thought I ran over to the door and opened it to get the hell out of there, and that was my greatest mistake. There was supposed to be a floor right in front of my door, but at the time there was nothing but air and car horns. Looking down I could see a massive city that looked something similar to New York, but there was a few differences that could be spotted.

Suddenly a hand grabbed the back of my shirt and pulled me in, and when I turned around there was the man from the tv standing there.

"I asked you to take my hand and what do you do, you run off like a coward." He intensified his grip on my arms and lifted me off the ground.

"Now, you're going to come with me boy, and that's final!"

And with that there was darkness and a cold that i've never felt before.

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I barely opened my eyes and looked above me. There was something above me, and I couldn't tell what is was until I punched it, and regretted doing that. I was in some kind of container that was warm inside. Looking down at my feet I could see them...wait, I could see my feet? I mean, i'm not Peter Griffin fat, but I am little large around the stomach. I tried to lift my hands and they wouldn't budge, obviously I wasn't going anywhere anytime soon.

The room around me was what caught my attention other than being trapped. All of the walls were marble white or whiter, and there were consoles with holographic displays. This had to be a dream, I mean I was just in my room, right? The doors on the other side of the room opened to reveal something that I thought that I would never see in person, a drell with boobs! Of course I always imagined that all of the women in Mass Effect had racks, but you have step back and think for a moment and remember the codex. The Drell are amphibious which means that they are cold blooded, which means no boobies.

I realized that if this was a dream, I know what would happen next. That drell out there would open the pod and be all over me going, "Thats a nice bod that you have there, mind if I have a taste?" Of course fantasies don't always come true, and now that she was closer to me, I could obviously see that she didn't have boobs, it was just the air hitting her shirt that made the illusion.

She walked over to the terminal on the wall and typed in a few commands which caused the warm air to rush out of the pod and bring something colder in. The air killed my boner and fast, thank the lord. Before I could complain She walked over to the pod that I was in and opened it up.

My restraints came off, and I was finally able to sit up and see what was going on around me. The drell bowed and walked off without a word, shutting and locking the door on her way out. I looked behind the pod, which was beyond my line of sight when I was restrained and saw a window with tinted glass that looked like a two way mirror. I knocked on it a few times and hoped for something to happen when a light came on, on the other side there he was, the man from tv.

I pounded the glass with my fists, trying to break through even though I know that I couldn't. He just smiled and pressed a button on the arm of the chair that he was sitting in.

"So, how do you like the modifications?"

I looked down and observed more of what went on when I was out. My gut had been reduced to a six pack, my arms weren't flabby anymore, my calfs and thighs of course were still siff as a rock, but most of all when the drell came into the room I noiticed that the main man downstairs had gotten...taller.

The mystery man was smiling back in his seat, "I hope that you enjoy your upgrades, becuase you're going to need them for the task at hand, Nathan."

I looked up at him when he said that, "What did you just call me?"

He pressed another button on his console and popped up a holographic image on the window. Looking at the picture I could see that even my face had been changed a bit, and oddly enough I liked it.

"Your new name is Nathan McCreed, you'll be tasked with helping a very familiar man survive in the year 2180 on the Citadel. Your task will be to ensure that the target survives until he is deemed no longer necessary, is that understood?"

I shook my head, "No, I want to know who this guy is that you're talking about, and where i'm at!"

He got up from his chair and snapped his fingers, causing the window and the wall in front of me to split and open like a door. I finally got a good look at him, but didn't know who he was. All that could be said is that he's taller than some basketball players that i've seen. The room was cold, but when he walked in it got a lot colder.

Now standing in front of me he bent down to my level to get in my face, or to just make his point.

"Christopher Fryker, you remember him?"

The name immediately rang a bell in my head. Fryker was a character that I had created in my first fic, and what I thought was going to be my last, but I was mistaken. I had ended the story at the part where Christopher was at trial with the man that killed his father and then I just dropped it. I guess this guy must have read it or something.

"Obviously you do, and you just don't want to say anything to me about it. Believe me in this sense boy, I know what happens in the end" he said as he picked me up by the throat and walked me through the other door in the room.

Looking around I could see other doors down the hall, each with a different life form in it. To my left there was a creature that looked something like a steampunk robotic bird that was sitting in a birdcage at the center of the room. To my right there was a room with a Quarian in it that was a wearing a see through environmental suit, which left everything open to the public. I wanted to see more but obviously I was on a tight schedule. Before I was out of eyesight though, I saw two Turians enter the room with nothing but the scales they were born with. The next room passing by me on my right caught my eye, because of the occupant inside. There in a red and black skintight suit was none other than the merc with a mouth, Deadpool. I watched in awe as he sat there tinkering with a rubix cube while his hands were restrained, and oddly enough he was making progress.

Finally we reached another part of the hallway that wasn't as well lit, but had only one place to through, and that was the door with an blue and orange dot on it. The stranger dropped me in front of the door and pointed towards it as he pulled a briefcase out of the tux he was wearing.

"Don't lose this, or else."

I looked up at him and repiled, "Or else what?"

The doors opened behind me and he said, "Or else you can't get back home."

He then kicked me into the open doorway and into a familiar looking chamber with cranes and conveyor belts moving everywhere. The stranger tipped his hat and shut the door behind him so there would be no running back, of course how could you run if there wasn't even a floor to run on.

I looked down at the abyss below me and saw no end. I thought that I was going to die righ then and there when something grabbed my free hand. Unbeknownst to me, I had been saved by Peabody, who tossed me on to the catwalk beside him. The tall robot pulled me up off my feet, and believe me, standing didn't make him any smaller.

Nostalgia hit me and I high fived the robot, just like in the game, except his hand hit harder and pushed me off the railing. In a state of panic he used his portal gun to shoot a portal at the rising platform below me and fired another one at a line of conveyor belts. When I looked down at the portal I could see Peabody and the conveyor belts, the only problem was that a companion cube got in the way. I went face first into the thing and went flying into an open claw on the other side.

I swear that this was all staged because after I was caught I was thrown into the air again, this time there was a pipe in front of me. I hit the tube chest first and cringed as I slid down through the different areas that I now recognized as Aperture Labs from Portal. I passed by a turret assembly line and nearly got shot but one that malfunctioned on the line, then I went by a gel production plant and got splattered with blue gel which I knew would have something to do with the platforms that I could see ahead.

The end of the tunnel came quickly and in a few seconds I was hopping across platforms on my ass, like my cheeks were made of rubber. Without warning a door opened in front of me to reveal bright blue sky with buildings in it. I went through the door and bounced off of an all brick street and flew by a few police officers towards a ledge that looked safe at first, then turned into a nightmare when I realized that the city was floating in the sky.

The city of Columbia was more beautiful then it was in the game, and I admired it's beauty, but just for a moment, gravity decided to kick in and all I could see were sky lines and clouds below me. I thought that I would have shat myself by now, but for some reason my bowels were preventing me. For the second time now I thought that I was going to die, really! I didn't see anything around but a single man riding on the sky line with a girl following close behind. I waved both my hands and accidentally let go of the suitcase, which fell through yet another door below me.

The next scene unfolding before me was unbelievable. There were monsters flying everywhere and a man in a red and gold suit that I recognized as Iron Man. Somehow I ended up in the middle of the final battle in the Avengers movie, and I hadn't been hit yet, and neither had my suitcase which was finally getting closer to me.

I reached out with both hands to grab it when a stray laser shot hit it and sent it flying towards the empire state building. At that moment I lost all hope, I mean I just lost my only way back home and I hadn't even started my adventure int Mass Effect yet, what a n00b I was.

I'm not usually a person to give up so quickly, but in this case, an exception can be made. I spread out my arms to embrace the ground below me and expected to turn into the first human scrambled egg when I heard a something roaring towards me. When I looked to my left and saw something huge and green flying towards me and got into the fetal position. Soon I was snatched out of the air and my descent stopped. I came out of the position that I was in and sat on a solid, surface for once. Above me weighing in what I guess could be a ton was the massive green monster known as the hulk.

The giant green monster pointed a finger at me and said, "Stay here."

He turned away from me to get back into the fight when I raised my voice, "Wait! I need your help! Hulk's help!"

He turned to look at me and yelled, "Hulk is busy, Hulk can't help!"

I looked over at the Empire State Building and sighed, "I know that you're busy, but I need you to get me over there."

The tall green thing looked over at the tower then back at me, "Fine! Hulk help you, but Hulk needs to smash!"

He walked up to me and scooped me up like a little child and jumped off of the roof. Of course I nearly threw up from the sudden change of pace, but I somehow held the flood gates back. Within a few seconds we had through the top floor of the famous building, and landed in a small group of Chitauri warriors.

The Hulk threw me to the side as he started smashing skulls together. My back hit the wall and I had the wind knocked out of me with a few broken bones on the side. At that moment though, the pain didn't matter because I saw the only thing that mattered at the moment, the suitcase. The very thing that would get me home was on the edge of a broken window, a few seconds shy of falling into the battlefield. Even though I was in pain and out of breath, I still crawled ever so slowly towards the window to get what I wanted, and I would be damned if I wouldn't get it. As I made my way over to the suitcase fate had decided to kick me in the testees again. The Hulk was bringing the fight outdoors and threw a few aliens out the window, and by some twisted occurrence, one of the creatures nabbed the luggage on it's way out.

"Fuck this!" I yelled as I stood up on my two feet and ran out the window to catch them.

Now I had decided to saw screw everything else, I needed that thing and flew full speed down the side of the building to get the suitcase. I saw it falling with the bunch that the hulk threw out the window and reached my hands out in front of me, not even caring about the fact that I would die when I reached ground level. Once again now, I had gotten within reach of the precious cargo falling in front of me, and had no regrets now, but this just wasn't my day. The group of Chitauri in front of me disintegrated in a ball of fire, and my suitcase had been blasted again.

I didn't notice the door opening below me, but I did notice the random doorway that spawned in front of the suitcase. Looking down, I expected nothing but the worst to come out of this next transition between worlds, but what else could you expect after all the shit that had just gone down?

What was expected was a full on war. I expected to be tossed into the middle of the beaches of Normandy from the Longest Day or Saving Private Ryan, or even the nightmare that was Inigo Montoya's last stand in Scarface, but what met my eyes was a relief.

There was a cube shaped pig grazing in front of me, with not a single sign of death or randomness nearby, and the suitcase was lying right next to it! I had ended up in a plains biome on a random minecraft server, and I thought that I could stay here for a bit. After all, I just went through three sorts of hells and survived why not take a break for a bit.

Looking around I saw no signs of the transdimensinonal door that got me here in the first place, which was a relief. The other thing was that the sun was just coming up over the horizon, and with it a tune that I recognized from the 360 edition. Let me tell you now, my two favorite games are currently Minecraft and Mass Effect, and right now I'm loving Minecraft.

The first rule is always to watch your back, you never know when a creeper might sneak up on you and make everything light up more than the hippies during the hippie movement. The second rule is get wood, and I mean that in the non-herbert the pervert way too.

I found an oak tree about five blocks away from me and started pounding on it with my fist, which wasn't as painful as I thought that it was going to be. Right as I was finishing the tree off a sensation went down my spine, which is pretty usual for me. I checked behind me to see if there was anything there and saw the fear inducing, ugly, green penis looking thing with four feet, the creeper.

By the way it was moving around it hadn't seen me, but it saw something else. I did the dumbest thing and followed him over the hill to see where it was going when I saw a gamer tag in the distance. Moving closer I could clearly see steve over the player that had barricaded himself in his dirt hut, the creeper at the door. In the past when i've helped people in siutations like this, I got rewarded, so in this siutation it was me to the rescue.

Taking the wooden blocks that I had somehow fit in my pocket I pulled out and made a crafting bench. Then I turned the wood into planks, and from there I turned half into sticks while the other half I left alone. I put in the right combination of planks and sticks to make a sword and left my suitcase by the crafting bench.

With my sword raised high in the air I yelled, "Hey ugly!"

The creeper turned to face me and started creeping my way. I was confident that I could kill the stupid thing before it blew up, but then I remembered all the other times that I tried to do that and lost everything in the process. I hadn't really planned at all on what I would do when the creeper got close enough, so I turned and ran for my life, wooden sword waving in the air.

I didn't want to look back, because I knew that the creeper was catching up to me. Creepers aren't supposed to be this fast, then again i'm still getiing used to the pain from New York and this new body, so there is some getting used to to do. Looking ahead I could see the crafting bench, and the suitcase where I had set it. Now I was really wanting one of those doors to appear and fast so I could get away from the suicidal monster behind me, but I had no such luck.

An enderman had appeared right next to my suitcase and was eyeing it like a diamond block. I couldn't risk losing that suitcase again so I threw the only thing that I had at it and hoped for the best. The enderman obviously saw it and grabbed the closest block to it and disappeared. I picked up the suitcase and kept running as fast as I could up the hill in front of me and I didn't seem to be losing steam like I would have in the past. For some reason though the creeper wasn't getting any slower, and the hill had flattened out. Now the creeper was four blocks away instead of being five. If I didn't pick up my pace and soon I would be blown to smithereens!

Just then I tripped over something that looked like a rock and fell into a ravine that went down farther then I could see. I lost the creeper but I just got myself into something of a different story. A bright light appeared below me and another set of doors opened, hopefully this would be the last place that I would have to go to, or better yet be my destination, which by the look of it was.

Going through the door I could see the prisitne and curvy walkways of the presidium unfolding before me. Oddly enough there wasn't a soul around to see me falling through an interdimensional gateway to get here, but there was a vehicle, or two, and they didn't even see me. In a way, I was having to play frogger while falling towards the small lakes below and dodge a few vehicles. I don't mind getting wet at all, I just didn't want to get hit by a skycar on the way down and die. Of course it was inevitable that I would get hit.

Flying towards me in what looked like to be a c-sec patrol car was turian that was too busy talking to his omni-tool to pay attention to the man that he was about to hit, and when he hit me, my trajectory changed from falling into the lakes to flying towards the alleyway to my left. I looked down to see if there was something comfortable to land and only saw a krogan, and didn't look like one of the nice ones either. He didn't see me coming and we both flew down the alleyway, into a pile of garbage at the end that smelled worse than my clothes pile after a week or two of fermenting.

I was just glad that I had something to land on, of course it wasn't anywhere near the water that I was going to land in, nor was it as lifeless as the krogan behind me.

'_Uh oh_.'

I checked the krogan's pulse to see if he was alive and felt a pulse through his arm.

"Damn, I must have knocked him unconcious." I said to myself as I tried to stand up.

I pushed my hand against the wall to push myself up and get moving, by my side seemed to disagree with me. I fell back down to the ground and couldn't get up. My body had finally decided to wake up from the shock and tell me '_sorry bro buuuuut_,_ you're hurt_' and now I was really starting to feel it. Though with this new body, my pain resistance must be high, becuase that pain that i'm feeling right now feels like one of those side cramps that you get from running too much. The pain wasn't bad, but for some reason my body decided to shut down and put me into sleep mode. I could feel my eyelids getting heavy, and every muscle in my body feeling weak and drained. As my head fell to the ground I could see somebody at the end of the alleyway with red hair and a white suit. It looked like a woman, and hopefully whoever it was wouldn't take my damn suitcase.

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**I hope that this chapter provided a little introduction into the insanity that is going to be me redo of first fic. The only reason i'm keeping it on my story page is for the background story(let me warn you it was my first fic, it's kinda sloppy). **

**I wanted to give a shoutout to iNf3ctioNZ for inspiring me to make a self insert fic, because his stories are awesome! Read them all!**

**Comment or Review if you have any questions, comments, or just tell me how awesome I am. ;-)**

**Also check out my other story, "_The Red Crosshairs_", it gives a backstory to the character that I made a while back who stars in shadow knight1121's story "_The Shadow Warriors_". Check it out!**

**_UNTIL NEXT TIME!_**


	2. Getting to know thyself

**Disclaimer: I don't own Bioware, EA, Mojang, or any of the games mentioned last chapter**.

**A/N: if you didn't get the memo before, there is going to be a lot of foul language and gore in this story, so viewer discretion is advised.**

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_"Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I'm not sure about the universe."_

_― Albert Einstein  
_

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"Mister McCreed?"

I didn't feel like getting up to respond to the calls crying out to me. My head was pounding, and I just wanted peace and quiet.

"Mister McCreed, are you conscious?"

Opening my eyes welcomed me to the face of the beautiful creature calling out my name, and her name was doctor Michel. Though she looked a lot more detailed and stunning up close and personal rather than in a video game. One thing that I noticed also was that I was in the same clinic that Tali would have to go to when the time came and the very same office where Shepard saves the good doctor.

Michel, still thinking that I am out of it waves her hand in front of me to get my attention.

"Mister McCreed, how many fingers am I holding up?"

"Four."

She turned and grabbed the pad behind her and typed something in, "Good, you're awake. For a second there I thought that I had found a vegetable in that back alley."

Praise God somebody found me. I'm glad that i'm alive, I just have to remember to...

"THE SUITCASE!" I yelled at the top of my lungs.

The doctor looked a me with a confused look, "What suit...oh, you mean this suitcase?"

She stepped to the side to reveal the one thing right now that I would jump through another dimension to get, and I breathed a sigh of relief.

"When I brought you and this thing in I received a message from the Alliance telling me that it was important, and not to touch it, so I kept it safe for you agent McCreed."

"Agent?"

She nodded, "Yes, the Alliance told me that you are on a special mission, and that I am not to know any more."

Obviously the stranger has a part to play in this. All that I knew was that I am Nathan McCreed and nothing more, and now i'm suddenly this top secret spy guy for the Alliance...great. I looked over at the doctor and saw her typing up something on the console in front of her, and something caught my eye about her. Like I had mentioned before everybody was more detailed than in the game, and the one thing that caught my attention was her ass. Now I've seen some nice asses before, but for some reason hers was like a gigantic magnet that I couldn't take my eyes off of.

Then she turned around and opened her omni tool, "Are you ok mister McCreed? I just noticed a sudden rise in your heartbeat."

I nodded and tried to hide the flagpole that was standing up between my legs by pulling my legs close to me. Lucky for me she didn't notice and handed me one of the data pads that she was holding and pointed at the bottom.

"This is a release form, sign it and you will be ready to go."

I looked at her then the form, "Who's covering me?"

"The Alliance."

I used my finger to sign my name onto the holographic form and it disappeared. Doctor Michel walked over to me with what looked like civilian wear.

"Here is your clothing, if you have any questions then ask me, and if we are finished here then have a nice day."

She walked over to her desk and sat down, but the one thing that cycled through my mind before she got there was...

_'Dat Ass'_

* * *

After grabbing my things and leaving the clinic, I decided that I wanted to see what the citadel looked like without all of the pixels and might I say it was one hell of a sight. Walking down the streets was even cooler, I talked to Turians, high fived a Hanar, flirted with an Asari, and even helped out a Volus that lost his way. I felt like I was at home by the way that I was interacting with these people that I had never met before, and it felt awesome!

Let me be clear though, i'm a shy guy and I don't mean the masked guys from Mario either, I mean that I have trouble talking to new people and somehow i've become the most interesting man on the citadel. Even with all the perks there was one thing that disturbed me. When I flirted with that Asari back there, I was about to ask her if she wanted to embrace eternity in the hotel across the street and fuck her brains out, but that wasn't like me. Because i'm shy, i'm also reserved, meaning that i'm not the type to ask somebody if they want to do it so openly. If I wanted to do something like that, I should have at least gotten to know her first. Obviously the stranger had some explaining to do about the makeup of my new body, because this was all new to me.

Just then I heard something, "Psssst, behind you."

I looked back and couldn't believe my eyes, it was the stranger in broad daylight. He lifted the fedora off his head and bowed.

"I see that you have questions my boy, would you like to talk about the birds and the bees?" he said with a hint of sarcasm.

I nodded, "Yeah, I want to talk about what you did to me, to my body when you transformed it."

"I will, meet me behind the door over there." he said pointing to a door that wasn't there when I walked by.

He waved his hand and the door opened, revealing the room where this all started. I walked in and he locked the door behind me.

"Please, have a seat."

Suddenly a table appeared in the middle of the room, a chair on each side. This was sketchy enough having a door appear out of nowhere, but obviously this guy was a master of time and space. As I sat down he took the suitcase from my hand and put it on the table.

"Now, I can tell that you don't approve of the body that you have been given."

I nodded, "Yeah, I don't like the fact that all of a sudden i'm a playboy looking for ass to tap, and that I can't control what comes out of my mouth."

"And I can understand that, but like every good actor you have to get into character. Your character is a smooth talking, well built, and knowledgeable gentlemen that has a refined taste in women and other sorts of things."

Oddly enough what he said was agreeing with everything that happened. Somehow I think that i'm inheriting this Nathan person's traits, and quickly losing mine.

"Your concern is necessary though, after all I did use an absurd amount of testosterone to give you the muscle structure that you have, which also explains the improvement to the muscle downstairs, if you know what I mean."

I face palmed and tried not to lose my cool, "How do I know that I won't completly lose myself?"

He reached across the table and put his hand on mine, "I'm sorry to say but I know that you will be lost. The whole process was to make you into somebody else, not you in somebody's shell."

I fell back in my chair and started losing it. I was going to be erased from reality just so a character that I made can do what he needs to do.

The stranger made the table disappear and pulled me up from my seat, "Don't fret my boy, I built something special into your mind that will store all of the genetic information that makes you, you. That way you won't disappear forever, and you can guide mister McCreed to what he needs to do."

"I'll be like his conscience talking to him."

The stranger nodded and unlocked the door, "Thats right. Now you need to go out there and find Fryker to get him moving along."

"And how will I do that?"

He raised his hand in the air and out of thin air summoned a pipe and a datapad. "Elementary my dear McCreed...You are a man that wants to clean up the Citadel because of a botched investigation into a fellow officers death. This involved an assassin hired by the Batarian Hegemony, who was identified but never caught. Distaught by hearing this, you are looking for someway to circumvent ths justice system, and somebody that is like minded. So, hearing whispers about a vigilante in the making, you decide to give Fryker the money that he needs to fund his campaign of vigilante justice all over the Citadel."

I looked over at the suitcase then at the door, "Where do we meet?"

With a flick of the wrist he summoned my suitcase to his hand and gave it to me, "You'll find out in due time. For now, have fun exploring the hub of the galaxy." He said as he pushed me out and shut the door behind me.

Now I really didn't know what to do. Looking around me there were plenty of places to go, I just didn't know where to start. Across the way though, I think that I found what I was looking for.

This place had bright lights all over and it was calling my name, not literally of course. It was an antique shop that sold antiques from earth, and funny enough they weren't antiques to me. The first shelf on my left had a Nintendo Wii with two Wii motes, which weren't really outdated in my time, in the matter of the fact they were still fun to play with. To my right I noticed all of the antique pottery and cutlery that this shop had and in the meantime stumbled on the best display there, the guns. I was surprised that these were even allowed on the citadel, the fact being that these things could backfire and explode at any moment, but there had to be collectors out there so this case made sense to me now.

In the display there was the british SA80 along with the M16, the M4, a Beretta 50 cal. sniper rifle, and of course the ever sexy AK-104 with a grenade launcher slung underneath. I didn't realize it but I had my face close to the glass, which caught the attention of the old man limping his way around the counter to me. He pulled his cane as far back as he could and pushed me forward a bit before getting on his soapbox.

"What are you doing so fecking close to the fecking glass!" He yelled in a thick Scottish accent.

I turned to face the potty mouth behind me and got hit in the head with a cane.

"Is this how you treat all your customers?" I said while rubbing my head injury.

His reply was spitting at my feet and having a shoddy wooden cane pointed at my face.

"No, I only give the special treatment to the arseholes that breathe on the fecking glass! Didn't you read the sign?"

He pointed his cane at the case behind where the sign was.

"Can't ya read?"

I nodded, "Yeah I can read, I just liked the choice of guns that you had out...sir."

Reading his expression he got the formality at the end of my sentence and calmed down.

"You like these old things?" he said with a grin.

I grinned from ear to ear, "I do as a matter of the fact, and I was actually wondering if you had more of a selection?"

He looked at the front of the store and motioned me to follow him to the back. There was a large steel door with a holographic code console on it. The old man typed in a few numbers and the front entrance closed and sealed, while the door in front of us opened to a large white room with racks that lined all of the walls.

"Do I have a larger selection, ha! Does a Quarian shite in their suit?"

The answer to that question was probably no because of the ramifications of doing such a thing, but I just decided to let him have fun. Seeing the collection before my eyes made them bulge out of my head as I saw the arsenal laid out before me. The owner wanting to make a good sale brought me over to a wooden rack in the corner that he had to open the old fashioned way, with a key. Obviously he saved the best of all the guns in the back, in the matter of the fact some of them had designs etched into them.

"Even though these are the best that i've got, i'm willing to let go of 'em."

"Really?" I asked with enthusiasm.

He nodded, "Definitely, besides, you're the only person that hasn't stuck their nose up at fine weapons like these. I just guess that the pricks here consider these primitive and non lethal, even when they could blow their skulls clean off more than the modern ones can."

Just then I noticed the weapon that would make my day literally. It was a modernized version of the 44 magnum, an advanced version of the very same pistol that was used in one of my favorite films Dirty Harry. The only differences were that it didn't have a wooden grip, the rest of the gun was gunmetal grey not black, and the barrel wasn't circular rather in the shape of a square.

The old man could see my interest in it and pulled it off the rack it was on, "So you like this one eh? Wanna buy it?"

I held a hand up to tell him to hold on for a moment and picked out a few more guns that he had up there and put them on the table nearby. He eyed up the ones that I put on the table and laughed, "My my, are you a collector?"

I shook my head, "No, I was actually wondering if I could refit these for modern ammunition."

He widened his eyes and pointed to the guns on the table, "You know that it's going to cost ya at least fifty thousand credits per gun right?"

I picked up the AA12 that I put on the table and checked it over, "Yeah, i've got the money."

Just then there was this loud noise, and I fell to the ground in pain. I looked over to the old man and saw him just standing there, somehow time itself had frozen, and in my mind I knew how.

My suitcase opened up, and out popped the head of the stranger.

"Hello again," he said as as looked over at me "I forgot to metion something to you."

"What did you forget?"

The stranger pulled one of his arms out of the suitcase and pointed to it, "The suitcase, it's your only connection to me whenever you need me and right now you need me."

Using his only arm out he waved for me to come closer to him and grabbed my arm, then pressed a spot over my wrist. Out of nowhere my omni-tool came to life, and I just now figured out how to turn on the damn thing. Pressing a few icons he brought up what looked like the screen of an ATM terminal and pressed an icon that said access now, which caused the number at the top right corner of my screen to go from zero to fifty million. My eyes popped out of my head and I nearly lost it when he explained what that was.

"I just transfered fifty million credits to your account so that you can customize those guns over there, and buy some customizable armor. After all, you are going to need to show off some combat skill in order for Fryker to accept you."

"So i'm going to be reeling Chris in by being a vigilante myself?"

The stranger snapped his fingers and nodded, "That's right, and there are three things that you need to do before you meet up with him. One is to upgrade the guns with mass effect technology, two is to get some kick ass armor to attract the attention of the up and coming vigiliante, and three is to find somebody to save. You need to project yourself as an idealist that wants to circumvent the justice system in order to save the citadel, and that's what you're going to do by saving somebody's life."

"Ok, thats a lot to do just to get somebodys attention."

The Stranger shook his head, "It really isn't, especially when you let the McCreed side take over your mind, then you'll be kicking butt like Jason Bourne when he gets angry."

I looked at my hands and he had somehow disappeared. At the same time the suitcase had turned into what looked like a back pack, and time was unfrozen.

'_He chooses the weirdest times to do things_' I thought as I stood up.

By the time that I was up, the owner had taken inventory of what I put on the table and shoved a piece of paper in my face that was the receipt.

"So, you still want to buy all that over there?"

I opened up my omni-tool with a grin,"Sure, where do I sign?

* * *

(**Two Hours Later...**)

I took the stranger's advice and got the weapons modernized which put a decent sized hole in my budget, two million credits to be exact. Then I went by the armor shop to get some armor and had an idea pop in my head. Instead of getting heavy armor that could slow me down, I was able to get the 22nd century's version of kevlar armor, the only difference was that it was more like a lightweight metal that moved with my body instead of being made of fabric and it had an over shield to go with it. The best part was making the skull emblem on the armor and the collapsable helmet that came with it.

The idea of the emblem and the black trench coat that I bought at a local thrift shop came from a famous anti-hero that I know and love called the punisher. With this getup I wanted to scare my enemies shitless and get a name for myself out there, and fortunately for me, Marvel Comics doesn't exist here so I have free reign over the title as the punisher.

I also found out that the backpack that i'm supposed to use for help is actually a portal that acts as a storage facility where I can store all my gear without leaving anything behind in combat. I was actually starting to become a little more grateful for what the stranger did for me, after all he did give me an awesome body, a separate personality that can kick ass when necessary, and money. What else could I ask for?

Just then I noticed a Quarian girl running into an alleyway nearby, screaming,"Help!" at the top of her lungs. Following close behind were a bunch of Turian C-Sec officers that had the all too familiar smell of booze following close behind them. The whole situation reeked of trouble, and I immediately knew what to do. I looked around for the closest telephone booth and forgot that it was the 22nd century, so I settled for the next best thing and ran into the closest mens room and changed in there.

Within thirty seconds I was able to change into my Punisher attire, and equip the now modernized 44 magnum, which looked more badass then it did when I bought it.

* * *

In the aforementioned alleyway, the Turian officers had surrounded the Quarian near the end of the alley and were slowly closing in.

"Hey vagrant," yelled one officer with a baton in his hand, "I wanna see if you have anything stolen in that suit of yours."

"C'mon sweetheart" yelled another, "all that we want to do is a simple pat down."

"Yeah," chuckled another one,"I heard that you stole a krogan's quad back there and he wanted it back."

The rest of the group looked at him and broke out into a fit of laughter. While they were laughing the Quarian saw an opening in the group and took her chance to get out, but it failed. One of the officers tripped her up and caught her around the waist.

"Where the fuck are you going slut?" said the one that captured her.

She struggled to get out and he pulled a knife out on her. "I'm going to cut open that suit and we're all going to take turns filling up every hole and crevice in your body with a special type of whipped topping, courtesy of C-Sec's finest."

The group bursted out into a fit of whooping and hollering and started unfastening the buckles that held their pants up, when a gunshot filled the air behind them. Looking back at me they first saw the big white skull on my chest, my black helmet, and the revolver in my hand.

I cleared my throat as I pulled off my best Dirty Harry impersonation yet, "So, let me ask every stinking cop at the end of this alleyway, do you feel lucky?"

They all stared at me and pulled out their handguns as I stood there.

"Who the fuck are you?" yelled one of the cops.

I pointed my revolver and shot the closest one in the head and answered his question, "I'm the man that's here to clean the streets of filth like you, filth that's here to enforce the law and protect civilians, but instead are acting like a bunch of criminals."

Obviously I pissed them off, because they all had their guns pointing at me.

"I don't care if you're a member of the fucking council, YOU'RE DEAD YOU HEAR ME! LIGHT UP THE SON OF A BITCH!"

They all opened fire and I let every shot hit me. I moved my body in time with every shot to make it look like they were actually killing me, but they were not, instead they were just scratching the surface of my shields. It was the perfect ploy to fool your enemies when they don't know better is to play possum, or in other words play dead. When their weapons overheated I fell to the ground and played dead, while they cheered in sheer ignorance.

"Well, that was easy." said one.

"Yeah, but how do we explain about taugus?" said another.

The officer that obviously was the head of the group scratched his mandibles then looked at the cowering Quarian at the end of the alley and grinned.

"We just blame it on the idiot we killed and tell the executor that the bastard was trying to get in this girl's suit." The rest of the group nodded in agreement and continued unbuckling their pants, desperate to fuel their drunken urges.

While they had their backs turned to me, I decided to scare the pants right off of them and stand up behind them. As I was getting up one of the others spotted me and pointed in my direction. The others gaze followed and they all looked on at me in shock, and not a single trace of awe.

"Looks like it's time for your punishment kiddies." I yelled as I pulled out the AA12 and motioned for the Quarian to hit the dirt.

I swear that it sounded just like I though it would when Terry Crews gave everybody hell in the expendables, and it was just as gory too. Blue blood painted the walls of the alleyway, chunks of Turian covered the poor Quarian from head to toe. The Quarian shook in fear as each blast came out as loud as the next. It was obvious that she had not been in combat before, so this was all new to her.

About thirty seconds after pulling the trigger, the shotgun finally decided to overheat and and there was nothing left of the officers that once had once stood before me. When the Quarian looked up, she saw that she was covered in blood and panicked.

"KEELAH! How am I going to get this off?"

"The question is who will get that off?"

That got her attention enough so that she paid attention to the man that just saved her life. Looking over at me, she stood up on her two feet and and ran over to me, arms open wide. When she got close enough I pulled her into my arms and she started crying.

"Thank you whoever you are, thank you."

'_Wow_' I thought as we both stood there, '_I just saved somebody, and she has a nice ass.' _I to myself as I gently caressed the mounds behind her.

At that moment I heard something land on the ground behind me and turned to see what it was. I thought that I was about to get into a another fight so I readied my AA12 to blow whoever it was and came face to face with a man wearing a white helmet with red lenses, blue light armor, and what looked like two weapons attached to his sides. If my judgement was correct, then this was none other then the vigilante himself, the man of the hour, Christopher Fryker.

"So," I said trying to calm myself down, "I'm guessing that you're the vigilante?"

**...TO BE CONTINUED**

* * *

**Finally the vigilante is here, and he means business when he meets me. Here is the question though, will he be understanding of how I just wasted a bunch of C-Sec officers, or will he bring down the hammer of his version of justice down on me and squash me like a bug?**

**Stay tuned for another pervy and surprising episode of MASS EFFECT 0: THE VIGILANTE REDUX!**


	3. The First Mission

**After typing all this up, i'm pooped. X-P**

**Disclaimer: I don't own anything but my OCs**

* * *

_"Be the change that you wish to see in the world"_

_- Mahatma Ghandi_

* * *

"So," I said trying to calm myself down, "I'm guessing that you're the vigilante?"

The figure in front of me stared at me as if he was analyzing me as a threat or not. The Quarian that I saved walked in front of me and held her arms out, in what I could determine was in my defense.

"Please don't harm this man, he just saved my life." she said while shaking in her suit.

I couldn't blame her, I originally made Chris to be intimidating, and frightening to all that faced him, and I kind of based his uniform off of an anime anti-hero called the skull man.

The Vigilante looked around her and saw the blood bath that happened at the end of the alleyway and looked at her envirosuit. Both were a testament that I meant business, and that I just saved this Quarian's life. What was about to shock me was the sound that came out of his mouth, which sounded like a voice modulator of some kind.

"What all happened?" he said as he looked into the faceplate of the Quarian in front of me.

Out of nervousness the Quarian started off stuttering, "W-w-w-well, I was just going about my business doing some shopping for the asari couple that brought me into their home, when I passed by this bar. There were a couple of Turian C-Sec officers that looked like they had just gotten off duty, because they..."

"Weren't wearing their badges and I bet they were drunk." the vigilante interrupted.

"Right, then they saw me passing by and started following me. Me being a very paranoid type of person, I would constantly turn around and they would be there. I finally decided that I wanted to lose them so I started running and yelling for help. That's when I ran into this alley and they cornered me."

"And thats when I unloaded on the bastards." I said with a grin on my face.

Obviously Chris didn't like the way that I said it and huffed, "So you fired off that reworked shotgun with the person that you were trying to save in the middle of it all?"

The Quarian stepped in again and explained, "No, he got their attention first and shot one of them in the face, then after they shot him he played dead until they turned their backs on him."

"And then I blew them away with this baby right here." I said pointing to the AA12.

Chris looked at the mess again, then moved the Quarian out of his way so that he could stand face to face with me.

"You don't look like the kind of man that saves people out of the kindness of his heart, what's your reason?"

I shrugged my shoulders and smiled, "I really did want to help her, but at the same time I wanted to attract the attention of the Vigilante himself, not to arrest you, but rather to join forces."

He took a few steps back away from me and took another look at me then motioned for me to follow him. The Quarian watched us go by and pulled on the sleeve of my trench coat. I turned to figure out why she did it, when she ew rapped her arms around me and pulled me into a hug.

"Thank you for saving my life back there. Can you tell me who you are so that I can spread the word of what you've done?"

I looked back at Chris and he shook his head, "Sorry, but I have to lay low after the stunt I pulled."

She laid her head on my chest and tightened her grip around me, and I felt a bit of sadness go through me. She was working me over to tell her who I was and I wasn't just going to blow my one and only opportunity to join up with Chris. So I pressed a button on the side of my helmet and opened up my helmet so that I could leave a little present on where I thought her mouth was, a kiss.

She blushed and I left off to go somewhere with Chris, wherever he was taking me. Lucky for me and Chris we left just in time, C-Sec vehicles were pulling in and there coming in in force. They must have gotten word that some of their officers were invoved and wanted to get there as fast as they could, and they got there fast. Of course some of the officers were quick to blame the Quarian for what had happened, but from what I heard she had all of the charges dropped when they found out that the vigilante was in the area, along with somebody new in town that they said punished the officers for what they were about to do. I was recognized from then on out as the punisher.

* * *

(**Somewhere far from the site...**)

Chris had lured me to some abandoned warehouse far from where I did some painting with my shotgun and hid in the shadows. This was obviously a question and answer cession, because he didn't trust me enough to take me back to his base of operations, and from what I remember the first person that he saved, Verona.

To any other person the red eyes in the dark would have been intimidating, but to me it was all just a part of his design, I created the guy so I know how he operates. Every now and then I could see the red lenses disappear, almost as if they were blinking, and I could hear the sound of his boot hitting the floor. I thought that Chris would be more skilled in these kinds of things, I guess that I must have caught him in the beginning stages of him becoming the vigilante.

"So, you want to join up with me?" his voice echoed from the darkness.

"Yeah," I said with enthusiasm,"I do, I feel that we could achieve mutual goals."

The red eyes narrowed in the darkness and got closer, "What do we have in common?"

This next response had to be worded right, because I didn't want to let him know that I knew anything about him, "We do actually. I was wronged by C-Sec when they mishandled the evidence in the investigation of a close friends death. They had to drop the case all because they mishandled evidence."

To add some seriousness to my story I started up the waterworks and let the tears flow freely down my face, for some reason though they weren't fake like I wanted them to be, instead the other side of me was adding the pain from his perspective. I had completely forgotten that I was letting someone else take over my body for a certain amount of time. So for right now I let McCreed do his thing and reel Chris out of the dark where he was hiding, and it worked. Chris walked over to me and took off his helmet revealing his ear length brown hair and blue eyes, and put a hand on my shoulder.

"I can understand how you feel, I mean I lost my father because of crime, and the justice system didn't give a damn about it."

Now it was my turn to comfort him. I put a hand on his shoulder and provided the best that I could in support, "Justice is blind my friend and around here, she's worse than Hellen Keller in a dark room."

Chris looked up at me and laughed, "Who is that?"

"A friend of mine that has a lot of issues, a lot of issues."

He pushed my hand off his shoulder and put the helmet back on as he guided us towards the way we came in, "I think that we could work together. I just need to get the approval from Verona."

That's all I needed to know. As we left the building there was a black skycar sitting outside, and sitting there on the hood was the character that I never really did think too much about, Verona. Verona was a Drell woman, and might I say she looked a lot better than I thought she would. You could tell that she was woman becuase of the curvature of her body, the fact that her frame was smaller than the drell that I saw walking around earlier that and when she spoke her voice sounded higher pitched.

"So, this is Nathan McCreed?" she said as she projected an image from her omni-tool that looked exactly like me.

Chris nodded and opened the door of the skycar, "Does he pass the Verona test?"

The drell walked over to me and scanned me over with the omni-tool from top to bottom. I stood still so that the scan wouldn't take forever, and so that I wouldn't tick her off, and botch the whole thing before it ended. After scanning me with her omni-tool, she stood back and looked me over, the one thing catching her attention was the skull painted on my armor, and the backpack that looked like it was made of metal on my back. It looked like she approved of me, even though she kept eyeing the skull on my chest.

"Is that skull necessary?" she asked with a hand on her hip.

I nodded and popped the collar on my coat, "That's how I roll."

She looked back at Chris and said, "He passes."

Chris motioned for me to hop in the skycar and I jumped in. Before we left to go to his base he turned to me and extended his hand, "Welcome to the club McCreed."

I shook his hand back and grinned from ear to ear, "Just call me the Punisher."

* * *

(**Down at C-Sec headquarters**)

It was hectic at the hub of security for the entire Citadel. There were tons of officers that were there, including one that had an all to familiar visor on, he and two other officers were in their dress blues to attend the funeral that was being held in an hour.

"Come on Garrus," said the paler of the three,"they were rookies, they had it coming."

Garrus threw his arm out and almost clotheslined the turian walking next to him, "Chellik, you can't justify their murders because of how young they were!"

"Why not?" said the other that was following them,"Isn't youth wasted on the young?"

The other two turned their heads to see the older Turian woman standing behind them and shook their heads,"Of course you would say that Xel, you're older than the both of us combined."

Xeltanis grabbed a datapad off of a random persons desk and smacked Chellick over the back of his head.

"Ow! The hell Xel!"

Garrus laughed and some of the other officers around them joined in on it, causing Chellick to blush.

Unbeknownst to the group though, a Turian in a well decorated uniform was approaching them from behind, with a datapad in hand. As he apporached the trio, he waved for everybody else to disperse then interrupted their laughter.

"I see that we can find laughter and happiness even in times of death and sorrow."

The three recognized his voice and turned to face him.

"No sir!" They all said in unison.

The man held a scowl on his face and shoved the datapad into Garrus' claws for him to see.

"All three of you have shown exemplary courage and determination out in the field, so much that I discussed it with the executor, and he agrees that this needs to be done..."

He paused for a moment just to make them guess then continued, "All three of you are being promoted to the rank of detective, congratulations to you all."

With that he turned his back on them to head into the auditorium for the funeral, but before he left Garrus held him back.

"Hold on sir, it says right here that most of the detectives that we have in C-Sec are being repurposed to hunt down this vigilante guy."

The well decorated officer turned to them and replied, "Look, what I'm about to say stays between the three of us ok?"

The other three nodded and hHe continued his explanation, "This vigilante guy has been a pain in C-Sec's ass for quite some time now, and the executor is feeling pressure from the council. We've thought it over and came to the conclusion that if this vigilante guy continued what he was doing then he would promote his brand of justice everywhere on the Citadel, so we created a plan for such a situation as the one that happened recently called operation chaser. What happens is that we have an event right here that involves the deaths of C-Sec officers, and tells the public that he doesn't just kill the bad guys, he kills the protectors of the Citadel too. Once this image is out we sick the best of C-Sec on this bastard like a bunch of hungry Varren, vicious and not having a clue of when to quit. We'll be dedicating our best men to the job, and you three will be leading it. It will be called task force v."

All three of the former officers around him couldn't come up with an answer for a statement like that. The higher ranking of the three saluted them and walked off without another word to say.

Chellick was the first to break the silence,"Did he just basically say that we were waiting for our people to be killed in order to initiate a manhunt?"

Garrus nodded,"I think thats what he just said, except he didn't want to make it obvious."

Xeltanis put a claw on each of their shoulders and pulled them toward the upper floors where the administration was,"We need to talk with the executor about this, becuase this is borderline illegal."

Garrus shook his head,"No, I think it is illegal."

"Stop for a minute!" Yelled Chellick at the top of his lungs, "Don't you think that the executor is just going to lie to us if we ask him about it? I mean lieutenant defro told us to keep it between the three of us."

Garrus nodded in agreement,"Plus he was probably the one that made the plan to begin with so what would the point be, other than getting the lieutenant fired."

"I think that we should probably stick with the program."

The two men of the group looked at Xeltanis at the same time with looks of shock. "I mean, if we tried to present this evidence to the courts here, all that they will do is strike it down because its our word against the executor, and trust me when I say that he has connections here."

Garrus scratched his mandible and thought it over,"She's right...we need to go with the flow until we have the right opportunity to strike."

"And when will that be?" asked Chellick.

"I don't know for sure, but I hope that it happens sooner than later."

* * *

(**Vigilante HQ**)

The skycar touched down in an abandoned warehouse that looked like the rest of them here. Chris chose the right spot to make his headquarters because it would take forever to find it here. Of course he didn't choose it, and it was already in someone else' possession, Verona's to be exact.

You see, family had a lot to play in this. Verona's uncle owned this warehouse before she was born, and ever since he disappeared the property fell into her fathers hands, and you can figure out the rest. The best part is having such a cool uncle as Thane Krios, that's right, Thane has more than just Kolyat to call family.

Anyways, the place was incredible, roomy, and it could use a few more people inside, but for right now it's just me, Verona, Chris, and who could forget the VI from Chris's skycar Jennings. From the looks of it, Jennings was advancing towards becoming an AI, and having a mind of his own, which seemed cool, but then you look at the geth and cringe. Of course EDI would make up for it in ME3, but that's further on down the road, I needed to focus on the now. Right now I was putting my things where they went in my room, and got settled in while Chris and Verona talked outside. I decided to keep all of the guns that were in my backpack there so that I wouldn't raise an alarm when Chris or Verona came back in here, which would be soon by the sounds of their conversation.

During the whole writing process of the original story, I had planned on reaching the part where Chris and Vonna met, but writers block came along, and I just lost interest in the story itself. I hoped that Chris would tell me in person about the whole thing because that was also his first experience with killing somebody. I've created the character Chris Fryker, now I want to get to know the man.

The door whooshed open behind me, and in stepped the man of the hour himself, "Getting set up in here?"

"Yeah, it's kinda cozy in here you know."

He looked around and saw the few things that I had with me and laughed, "You travel light."

"Right now I don't have a lot with me, but later on i'm going to want to get more guns."

Chris looked at the AA12 on the wall and nodded,"I could tell that you're an enthusiast by how you modded that antique over there."

I pulled the gun off the wall and looked down the sights,"Yep, I love these old guns."

"Why?"

I looked over towards the doorway and saw that Verona was now in the room. I shrugged my shoulders and threw the weapon on my bed.

"I guess thats its because I like the history behind them, that and I just like old guns in general."

"That sounds like good enough of a reason to me." said Chris

"So, whats on the agenda boss?" I said in a New York accent.

Chris motioned for me to follow him and led me to the computer in the living room.

"What Verona is about to show you here is the layout of the Dark Star Club, one of the hottest places to party on the Citadel."

Another screen popped up from that one to show the VIP section only, and a mugshot of a tough looking Turian.

"Since this is my first big time job, and what I believe to be yours am I right?"

I nodded,"All right, our goal will be to lure this scumbag here," he said pointing to the Turian,"away from the VIP section where we can interrogate him in the restrooms, and get some answers on who all is in the gang that my father was looking into before he died."

"So this is a revenge mission?"

Chris nodded and pulled a seat up in front of him,"Have a seat."

I did as he said and took a seat while he leaned on the counter behind him. "I became the vigilante for one reason and one reason only, revenge. You see, I thought that life was getting good for me after high school, I got a new car, the possibility of my dad getting remarried, and my friends had made a plan for the ultimate party that night. We went to this very club, the Dark Star Club, to have the time of our lives, and believe me, I did. Of course my friends forced my hand to do this, but I had sex for the first time, and it felt so good. I was having the time of my life when Garrus barged in and gave me the news that my father and his fiancé were under attck, and he couldn't ring up anybody else to help him, so he called Garrus..."

Chris stopped for the moment and took a seat. He was getting into the deep and emotional stuff that he had been training himself to bottle up, but couldn't.

I remember writing this part for Chris's background, I was getting into some really deep shit, and just by looking at the man himself break down in front of me kinda made me regret making his backstory so dark and gloomy. It made me want to hit the reset button on his life, but it was written in stone, and what I had in mind for his future wouldn't be any better, so for right now I need to make it better by helping him out.

"Hey," I said while giving him a hand,"we'll get this son of a bitch, and whoever he's working for, believe me."

Verona grinned and helped him up to,"I think that you two will get down to the bottom of things and solve this."

Chris wasn't as optimistic though,"You guys can say, but will it happen? Will this guy lead me to the other people that plotted to kill my father, or will it all just end there?"

I had heard enough of this. I grabbed Chris by a shoulder and gave him a solid slap across the face then got in his.

"You wanted to become the vigilante in the first place! It was your idea and you've made it this far, so why not go a little further? Or are you getting cold feet?"

Verona backed away because she thought that Chris was going to explode at any moment , but she was wrong. He picked up his mask which was on the table behind him and started putting it on.

"You're right...I need to get act my together if this is all going to work, that and I want to kill the bastard that planned this whole thing. I want to kill the leader of the tyrants!"

"That's the spirit!" I yelled as I went off to my room.

* * *

(**Somewhere on the Citadel**)

A Turian in a business suit was looking over the wealthiest part of the Citadel, and yet he wasn't satisfied with what he had.

"Lieutenant, did you notice the drop in our sales the past few weeks?." He said to the man behind him.

The familiar form of Lieutenant Defro came out of the shadows and answered the man's question,"Yes I did, and we have a remedy for that."

The other Turian let out a low growl and turned to face his counterpart,"Then why in the name of Palaven has it taken you til now to take any action? Do you know how much this vigilante character has cost me?"

Defro was trying to remember the numbers that he heard when the other Turian interrupted his thoughts,"35 percent! 35 fucking percent! Do you know how many credits it costs to run an operation like this? Do you?"

The look on Defro's face showed defeat, and his next few words made it all too apparent,"No, no I don't."

The Turian in the business suit pressed an icon on the display behind him and pulled up a map of the citadel. There were locations marked in red, while others were marked in black,"You know, this bastard has only been doing his business for not even 5 months and we still haven't caught him red handed."

"Sir we needed a reason to go after him, and now we have it."

"And it took you this long to do it."

Defro looked puzzled,"But we didn't even do it sir, it was somebody else that offed our people."

"What?!"

The officer opened his omni-tool and showed the footage from the day before, which was grainy. It showed the officers at the end of the alley getting turned to mush, and the Quarian that was thrown in it all. The businessman was shocked at the sheer brutality of the attack an even questioned who this vigilante character was now. If he could mercilessly massacre a bunch of police officers.

"From the im ages that we have of the vigilante and this guy right here, they're two different people."

The businessman leaned against the wall next to him and scratched his mandible, "So, what you are saying is that someone else offed your men?"

Defro nodded,"Yes, and as an added bonus it looks like he's working with the vigilante."

The lieutenant let the video playthrough to show both the vigilante and this new guy talking in the middle of the alleway. He tried to zoom in and listen to the conversation but the video canceled out before he could do a thing.

"So, I guess that we have more than one vigilante on our hands."

"Yes sir, we do."

The floor in the center of the room opened up suddenly and the blinds on the widows shut to darken the room.

"Lieutenant, if you would be so kind to leave me, I must speak with the master about this new disturbance that we'll be facing."

The other Turian bowed and left the room as the businessman started speaking to his boss.

* * *

(**The Dark Star Club**)

We arrived during the later part of the night cycle here on the citadel and arrived at the right time. Everybody and their brother was pouring in, so we would have plenty of cover in the crowd, that and there were some lightly dressed babes walking around. I could feel the urge of McCreed to go over to the bar and talk to the bartender, but I knew my mission and I would't let one person get ahead of what we came here for, the mission.

Before we arrived I memorized every nook and cranny that this place had, every secret entrance and backdoor was running through my mind as I made my way through the constantly moving crowd. I couldn't get into the beat or the music because i'm like shepard when I dance, but McCreed on the other hand is and expert, and the way that he was guiding me started up some of the urges that made when we first came in. A bulge started to form and lucky for me most of the people here were drunk, unfortunately so was the very flamboyant Turian that I was trying to get around.

I guess that it was McCreed trying to back at me for not letting him take control earlier when he grinded all over the Turian in front of me. The man turned to face me and pushed me over to a nearby wall where he started moving his claws onto my shoulders.

"Hello handsome," he said with a strong lisp,"looking to have a good time with my booty tonight?"

For a second there I thought that I was about to break out in a fit of laughter until he did something to make me realize that he was serious. To tell you the truth, I don't swing his way, but by the way that he was egging me on down there I wasn't very convincing. I really wanted to push the guy off, but I was afraid that I would break my cover if I did so I just went along with it, After all, it's McCreed's body too.

"Actually I was thinking about this the other way around. How about we go over in that booth over there and do something dirty?"

Oddly enough I got a different reaction than what I expected out of him,"Sorry, I don't do that stuff anymore. Especially after my first boyfriend ditched me."

'_Oh boy._' I thought as the Turian started crying on my shoulder.

"We used to do a certain position all the time, and one day he wanted to do something different, something a little more painful if you know what I mean."

Of course I did know what he meant, but I had never been in that situation before, so I took over this time around.

"What you need to do is forget about him and remember that there are other bigger, better, more incredible fish out in the sea. You aren't limited just to him because he was your first boyfriend, and he doesn't have to be your last."

I felt like the Turian was starting to come to when he stopped crying and stood up straight,"You're right, but who wants me? I mean, I think i'm the only gay C-Sec officer in the entire organization. Everybody there would reject me and hate me!"

"Who said that you had to find that someone at work?"

He looked at me funny as he looked me in the eyes,"What do you mean?"

I pointed over towards the bar at what was a Turian soldier, dressed for some special occasion.

"That guy over there has been eyeing you ever since we started this conversation. I think that you should go talk with him."

The Turian looked back and saw the man at the bar wink at him,"You really think it could work? I mean I haven't dated in forever and I don't know what to say."

I shrugged my shoulders and grinned,"You never know until you try."

"You're right, i'll go talk to him."

Before I got out of earshot he turned and yelled,"Thank you!"

I waved back and moved on towards the elevator that was all a part of this plan.

You see, we plotted it in stages, and gave me a role to play to make it all work. I would be an up and coming businessman that deals in the red sand trade, and the man that I would be talking to is the guy that's in charge of the people on the streets, the dealers. What Chris told me about what he had been doing the past five months got my attention and big time. He had been hunting the individual dealers that sold the red sand and other goods on the streets, and tortured them when he got them back to base. Now he had gotten this guy's information from one of the dealers that decided to squeal and found out that his name was Skarr.

Funny enough the gangster didn't even have a facial blemish of any kind, the only thing that he had close to one were the clan markings that adorned his face, which didn't tell us anything about the guy. This man was under the radar, yet he craved attention in any way that he could get it. One way was through the amount of girls that he had around him, he used them as symbols of status. The other thing was the sheer fact that he was a member of the Tyrants, the all Turian gang that started out on Palaven as a simple means to control the people through fear, now it was pretty much like Cerberus.

Getting back to the task at hand, I had slipped into my outfit in the elevator, which thankfully wasn't transparent and was now ready to enter the ever exclusive VIP lounge of the Dark Star Club. When the doors opened, I was greeted by two tall and wide Krogan that looked like they meant business. One had a datapad, while the other had a very noticeable shotgun attached to his back. Just from glancing at these guys I could tell that they were the bouncers.

"Who are you?" said the Krogan with the datapad.

I quickly got into character and pulled off my best impression of Sean Connery,"The name is Toby, Toby Maguire."

The bouncer scanned the datapad and motioned for the other to frisk me."He's on the list." said the first bouncer.

"He's clean."said the other.

The holographic line in front of me disappeared, and I was allowed entrance into the VIP area which was covered in all sorts of colorful characters. There were booths that lined the walls, and every now and then I would see a stranger walk in with a hooker in hand, this was a place of fantasy. I followed the path that led to a huge back room with the label, 'Top Tier' in lights above it. Going in I had the luxury of seeing the target ramming himself into an Asari hooker that seemed to be enjoying the whole thing, or maybe she was just faking it for the credits.

I tried to get Skarr's attention, but the the sounds that they were making didn't help anything get through to him. I thought about yelling again but just considered on letting him finish, then we move on to business and getting that done.

While sitting there I pressed a button on my omni-tool to let Chris know that I was in position. I recieved a vibration back which confirmed that he was where he needed to be to and waited for the show in front of me to stop.

It took a moment for Skarr to register that somebody else was other than him and his guest, who had finished what they were doing and came down to greet me while putting on some pants.

"Are you Maguire?"

"Yes I am, and I have the arrangements for my next shipment of sand."

The Turian lit up as I handed him a datapad and nodded in approval,"I'm impressed, you have all our shipments ready to arrive on time."

"Of course, when you have the best we do the best."

He put the pad in his seat and put out his claw towards me,"My boss will be pleased, especially after our last contractor lost a few shipments before they even left."

"You must have gotten one of the cheaper people."

"Funny enough we didn't, the last person to take a contract from us had been in the business for years, and you know what fucked everything up?"

I shook my head and he slammed his fist on the table behind him in anger,"It's that damn vigilante! That little shit has cost us more than you can imagine in profits."

Suddenly the vent above me collapsed, and smoke filled the room.

"Guess what scumbag, I'm about to cost you more you prick."

Chris landed right in front of me and handed me some thermo-imaging goggles so I could see to grab what I came for. My objective was to snag the datapad that Skarr had in his safe in the corner. It had the lists for all of the shipments of Red Sand and some other illicit items that we would have to investigate after we got out of there.

"You got the datapad?" he yelled from across the room.

"Yeah, we just have to get out of here."

Chris aimed his wrist towards the ceiling and fired a grappling hook from a hidden launcher. I followed in suit with a larger gadget that could have been confused with a tv remote, and made my way up into the air ducts.

When the smoke below had cleared the guards couldn't even find us, there wasn't a single trace left behind.

* * *

**Another chapter down. This is the tipping point of which neither me nor Chris can escape and soon things will get interesting. Also I do plan on explaining who the Turian businessman is, because he plays a big role in what's to come, and I do plan on adding Garrus and the vigilante task force more into the story later on. For now though, I hope that you enjoyed this chapter.**

**P.S. if you are having trouble understanding who is who in the story, you can either comment, private message me, or check out my profile where i'll be posting the character profiles of those that are in the story.**

**P.S.S. Some characters that are mentioned are from my first story. You can read it if you want, but like I said, I am going to explain who Chris and the others are more thoroughly in the later chapters.**

**_UNTIL NEXT TIME!_**


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